Barry Murphy bags bronze at European Short Course Championships

Barry Murphy follows Grainne Murphy, Melanie Nocher and Sycerika McMahon as the fourth medallist for Ireland at these championships in four years.

Barry Murphy has won a bronze medal for Ireland in the 50m breaststroke at the European Short Course championships in Herning, Denmark.

Murphy came out of the heats as the sixth fastest qualifier and following the semi-final earlier this evening where he swam the exact same time as the heat, 26.86, was ranked eight overall.

Knowing that he would be swimming in the outside lane Murphy knew he would need to be first to the wall at the 25m mark or with the leaders to have a chance at a medal; he started strong clocking the fastest first 25 metres of the ten swimmers in the pool.

He then continued to push for the last 25 metres knowing a medal was in sight finally touching in 26.56 to claim the 50m Breaststroke Bronze medal, his first at a major championship.

Speaking after the race Murphy said “I’m really delighted; I knew I was in with a shout off the rankings and the times I posted during the summer, so I tried to keep my cool all day and execute my plan for the swim.

"It came down to hundreds of a second for the medal and thankfully I got my hand on the wall to secure the bronze."

Damir Dugonjic of Slovenia was the gold medallist in the event in 56.21.

Fiona Doyle finished her championship with a 14th place finish in the 100m Breaststroke. Doyle was sixth in the first heat with a time of 1:06.77.

Russia’s Yuliya Efimova continued her good form in the Breaststroke events finishing as the fastest seed finishing in a new championship record of 1:03.27.